"Hmph! Why didn't you tell me that you were about to attempt it?! I could have given you some pointers!" Dream complained, her face all tensed up like a miffed bunny.
"If I did, would you let me attempt the breakthrough in peace?"
"Crossing the first barrier of mortality is a significant thing! Any slight mishap and your cultivation could be crippled! Of course, I would have given you some space!"
"Yeah, right..." Akumu rolled his eyes. After knowing Dream for twenty years, the man was well-aware of how worrisome she could become when it came to her allies. If Akumu had told her that he was attempting to form his Spectre Soul, Dream would unquestionably put down everything in her life just to act as his protector. Not to mention, Dream would deploy her own spiritual abilities to boost Akumu's power, significantly increasing the chances for success. She would even spend millions of gold just to build a cultivation chamber for Akumu. And that wasn't mere speculation. Dream had actually done all of that for a bosom childhood friend of hers, who had attempted to form her Spectre Soul.
However, Akumu didn't want that. He wanted to rely on his own power to stand next to the greatest genius of all time and the only way to do that was to tackle cultivation problems himself.
Still, there was a need to appease the angry Dream. Therefore, Akumu threw out an empty promise: "Next time, I'll take that into consideration. If I have any other cultivation problems, I'll be sure to run to you."
"Mnnn! Now that's more I like it! Congrats on crossing the first barrier of mortality! Now your lifespan has doubled to two-hundred!" Dream chuckled.
"Hearing that from you… I don't know how to feel about that..." Akumu frowned. Dream had just broken into Rank 80, passing the second barrier of mortality and quadrupled her lifespan in the process. Should all things go well, Dream could comfortably live until she was four-hundred-years-old.
"Speaking of which, you haven't told me… What is your fifth spiritual ability?" Since Akumu hadn't discussed his cultivation matters with Dream, the thirty-two-year-old had little idea of the man's power.
"Hehe, I'm naturally saving the best for last..." Akumu's face turned queer as he heard Dream's question. He raised his index finger, congregating a large amount of darkness elements into that single point. Then, the man turned to the exit and hollered: "Kuro, come in!"
The wolf yelped in protest, still fearing that Dream might do something to it. However, it couldn't disobey its owner's command. Whimpering as it limped in, the wolf desperately tried not to look at Dream while it cowered behind Akumu's body. At this scene, the black-haired man didn't know if he should laugh or cry: "What the hell did you do to Kuro when I'm not around?"
Dream just whistled and gazed at the ceiling: "Nothing!"
"..." Akumu was highly sceptical of the woman's claim but sought no further elaboration. He slowly moved his fingers from the air and gently poked his favoured pet. Almost instantly, Kuro's fur stood erect, as if it had been electrocuted with the world's highest voltage. Dark mist emerged from Akumu's pores and coagulated inside of the Spirit Beast's body. If one were able to peek into the wolf's body, they would see an ominous obsidian core, filled with a dense amount of foreign mana, slowly taking shape.
Dream watched in earnest as the scene continued to unfold. Kuro was currently a Tier 3 Spirit Beast, equal in power to a Rank 20 Spirit Core cultivator. However, as Akumu's Rank 40 mana continued to pour into the wolf, Dream sensed that Kuro's cultivation was rapidly increasing. Darkness elements continued to escape from Akumu's arms, slowly empowering the already vicious wolf. And finally, after a full minute, Kuro's entire body erupted with a shockwave.
"AWWWOOOOOOO!!!" Kuro happily howled. Constant darkness particles flowed out from its fur, turning the chambers black in the process. The inner power of the beast almost doubled, and its overall presence had become more and more domineering. It was no longer a Tier 3 Spirit Beast, but a bona fide Tier 4 monster.
"Akumu, you..." Dream's bright white eyes quickly glazed over. She was taken aback by Akumu's new spiritual ability, there was no question about that. However, what truly stunned her was…
"You actually succeeded?!"
"Yes, yes, I did." The bearded man smiled. "You may have given up on the practicality of the Eternal Plan, but I sure haven't!"
The Eternal Plan. After Dream first introduced the concept of Heaven's Gate to Akumu, the duo embarked on an arduous journey to discover a method to enter the Immortal Realm without passing the Rank 100 threshold. It was a momentous task, one that had stumped even the world's greatest genius. Dream used the Crown of Wisdom to scour the entire planet for clues. She inspected the knowledge of every single expert in the world, be it Spirit Saints or top researchers. Initially, Dream believed that she could use a large amount of Aether Crystals to create the path. However, she quickly realised that it would prove to be an impossible task.
If Dream's calculations were correct, it would take at least a quadrillion peak Aether Crystals to imitate the power of ten Rank 99 Spirit Saints ascending. Not to mention, she had to figure out a method to keep the gate from falling apart. There were just too many variables that one needed to take into account, but there was one crucial detail…
"My fifth spiritual ability allows me to bestow my power to strengthen others and at the same time, monitor their surroundings. At the moment, I can only infuse my mana into Spirit Beasts that don't refuse my will. However, as I grow more powerful, I'm certain that I can spread my mana amongst human cultivators. When I reach the Spirit Saint realm, I'm confident of sharing my mana with at least ten thousand entities!"
To create Heaven's Gate, Dream needed more… mana. One way of obtaining that mana was to use an astronomical amount of Aether Crystals. However, that was far too impractical. It was hard enough to find just one Aether mine, let alone finding enough mines to get a quadrillion Aether Crystals. Thus, Dream had to obtain mana from another source. Humans.
Alas, that was easier said than done. In this era of peace, there were few powerful cultivators and even fewer Spirit Saints. Dream needed at least a hundred Spirit Saints worth of mana to theoretically open Heaven's Gate for ten seconds, but she was hard-pressed to even find ten Spirit Saints!
Out of ideas, Dream was forced to abandon this line of thinking and instead, spent all of her power investigating other methods to enter the Immortal Realm. However, Akumu never gave up hope. He believed, with a little bit of hard work, he would be able to artificially lift the cultivation levels of many in the world. After all, Akumu's Spirit was vastly different than regular ones. If he'd cultivated the right way, Akumu could empower thousands of talented individuals, helping them break into the coveted Spirit Saint realm.
"Akumu, you're really… Hah…" Dream sighed. Akumu had imagined that Dream would be jumping for joy. He'd also prayed that Dream would give him a hug as well as praise him for his sacrifice. However, none of that came from the ethereal beauty's mouth. Instead, she looked somewhat conflicted and blue.
"W-What? What's the matter?"
Dream looked at the bearded man, her eyes glistening in the light. Although Akumu's face was full of hair, in Dream's eyes, Akumu was still the young boy that she'd saved on the streets twenty years back. "You should have learnt a more useful spiritual ability, one that could help you in future… You've wasted your potential just so I could chase a dream that may or may not be attainable..."
"Ah, so that's what it was..." Akumu heaved a sigh of relief. At the very least, Dream wasn't pissed off at him. "Don't worry about me, Dream. I don't really have a particular spiritual ability in mind. Furthermore, this ability isn't inherently bad. I can help empower Kuro so that he could become a guard for me in the future. Also..."
Akumu leaned in and flashed an impish smile. "You know how special my Spirit is… This ability is unquestionably the best one for me."
"Yeah… You're right..." Dream wasn't all that convinced, but she still silenced herself. "Fine… Truth to be told, I do have some insights on the Eternal Plan. I just hadn't expected that you'll make this sort of sacrifice..."
"Really? What insights did you make?" Akumu's heart was turning. Dream's 'insights' would almost always lead to breakthroughs. The Eternal Plan had morphed into a joint target for Dream and Akumu. If there were a significant breakthrough, Akumu would be more than delighted.
"That is… No, nevermind. I don't think that my insights are ready to be crystallised yet." Dream hesitated to tell Akumu the full extent of her knowledge. To her, theories weren't worth jack-shit. Only when the theoretical could be proven by the practical, would her information be worth.
"However, I believe that we should act on our first assumption of Heaven's Gate. Ah, I have an idea!" Having a eureka moment, Dream's head flashed brightly. "Akumu, you said that your spiritual ability works best against Spirit Beasts right?"
"... For the moment, yes."
"If that's the case, why don't you head to the Uncharted Wilderness and gain more Spirit Beast subordinates?" Dream suggested with a brilliant smile. "In the end, the human population is far inferior to that of Spirit Beasts. Particularly those long-living ones that could match our continent's best Spirit Saints! If you can get them under your control, we'll have one more source of mana!"
"T-That… could work?" The bearded man was intrigued by the premise.
"Hehe, divide and conquer! Divide and conquer! You strengthen the Spirit Beasts, while I empower humanity! A win-win for both of us!"
Akumu had managed to inject his mana into Kuro for several reasons, the main one being that the wolf was a Spirit Beast of inferior intelligence. If Akumu wanted to strengthen humans, he had to at the very least wait till he was a Rank 70 Spirit Emperor. Dream, on the other hand, had a significant influence on human civilisation. At Dream's order, millions would move to move mountains for her. It would be child's play for her to strengthen the overall cultivation levels of the three superpowers.
Akumu's deployment to the Uncharted Wilderness truly was the best of both worlds. He could hastily increase his cultivation by leaps and bounds, all while taming the mysterious area. At the same time, Dream would gain a new source of mana for her Eternal Plan. There was one issue though…
'I can't bear to leave Dream...' Akumu frowned. Deep down, he understood that his affection for the beauty had transcended normal love. He wanted to be with Dream at every juncture, even if it meant sacrificing his soul to the devil. However, Akumu's feelings aren't reciprocated. Dream showed no intention of jumping into any romantic relationships throughout her thirty-odd years of existence. Otherwise, how would history's greatest genius and one of the most gorgeous people in the world, be unwed at her age?
'No, I swore that I would help her open Heaven's Gate! I can't let my own personal desire compromise Dream's goal!'
"I understand. I'll leave first thing in the morning."
"Woah, there! You don't have to be in such a rush!" The ethereal beauty jumped. She had just suggested that deployment in the passing. If they really needed someone in the Uncharted Wilderness, it would require months, if not years of planning. "How about this? I'll ask the council to open an outpost a few kilometres away from the Uncharted Wilderness? That way, you can continue your experiments, and I can visit you every now and then!"
Akumu grinned. "Yeah, that sounds really good. Let's do it your way..."
If Akumu had been more observant, he would have noticed that there was a strange glint inside Dream's eyes. However, it murkish colour quickly faded into nothingness as she gave the man a firm bear hug.
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